Romney: Releasing tax returns would give more for Obama to ‘lie about’

Mitt Romney has reiterated his insistence that he will not release more of his tax records. 

In an interview, Romney said he won’t release more tax returns because he doesn’t want to give the Obama campaign “more pages to pick through, distort and lie about.”

{mosads}“In the political environment that exists today, the opposition research of the Obama campaign is looking for anything they can use to distract from the failure of the president to reignite our economy,” Romney told the National Review on Tuesday. “And I’m simply not enthusiastic about giving them hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort and lie about.”

Romney said the 2010 tax returns he has already released, and the 2011 returns he plans to release, should be sufficient.

“My tax returns that have already been released number into the hundreds of pages,” he said. “And we will be releasing tax returns for the most current year as soon as those are prepared. They will also number in the hundreds of pages.”

Democrats have hammered Romney over not releasing more of his returns, and a few Republican office-holders, including Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) and Alabama governor Robert Bentley, have now weighed in to suggest he should release more information.

The Obama campaign is using the tax fight to portray Romney as a out-of-touch with the middle class. The argument over the tax records has dovetailed with Obama criticism of Romney’s tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital. 

During interviews Obama has urged Romney to release his returns in order to be “an open book” with voters, and the campaign has released ads toward the same purpose, often referring to a report that Romney had offshore holdings in the Cayman Islands.

Democrats have also pointed to Mitt Romney’s father, George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns when he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. 

Romney argues he has complied with the law, and that releasing more records would just give more ammunition to Obama. 

“We’ve complied with the law,” Romney told CNN on Friday. “The law requires us to put out a full financial disclosure. That I’ve done. I know there will always be calls for more, people always want to get more, and, you know, we’re putting out what is required plus more that is not required, and those are the two years that people are going to have.”